Two Portsmouth, Ohio parents are behind bars after their 11-month old baby died from a fentanyl overdose.
The death is the latest drug-related tragedy to claim the life of a child in Scioto County. Back in September, Portsmouth Police were called to the home of Robert Filius and Michaela Hupp and found their 11-month-old baby dead in a crib.
The death of the baby became one of the first cases investigated by the newly formed Scioto County Special Victims Unit. That task force is a joint investigative effort of the Portsmouth Police Department and Scioto County Sheriff’s Office.
While the task force waited for autopsy results, the couple’s older children were placed under the care of Scioto County Children Services.
When the results came back, the case was presented to a Scioto County Grand Jury last Friday. The indictment was kept secret to prevent the couple from fleeing from authorities. The plan was to arrest the pair when they came to visit their children at Children’s Services on Friday. However, Filius and Hupp were no-shows for the scheduled visit.
That’s when the investigation turned into a manhunt involving law enforcement from West Virginia.
The SVU unit received a tip that the couple had moved to Huntington, West Virginia. Huntington officers found the pair on Bridge Street on Saturday morning and took them into custody on charges of involuntary manslaughter endangering children, possession of a fentanyl-related compound, aggravated possession of drugs, and being a fugitive from justice.
Scioto County will extradite the pair back to Ohio to stand trial.
